


In the Beginning

by CaptainNightGale



Series: Of Hunters and Hunting [1]
Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Hunt, Monster Hunter 4, Nobody Dies, gore magala - Freeform, people get hurt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-30 22:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13961373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainNightGale/pseuds/CaptainNightGale
Summary: uhhhhidkI wrote this for a friend last year and now I'm shoving things online??idk man. I don't really know monster hunter but hey, there was coinage involved





	In the Beginning

_Kitten walks the streets of Val Habar market, the sun bright in the clear sky above her.  
It’s loud with raucous shouts, catcalls, advertisements of wares; meat, drink, traps, armour, hides – if it could be made or hunted, it was there (in the darkened streets off the side of the market, she knows there are more… exotic wares. Poisons, monster calls. Bodies, living and dead, for whatever purpose you wanted).  
Luka pads along at her side, a wary eye on their surroundings. Despite Kitten’s assurances, he’d still rather not leave anything to chance, like being robbed of their latest earnings, which are in a bag that swings from Kitten’s shoulder.  
Kitten twines her hands behind her back and skips across a briefly open patch of the common market ground, bouncing as if she could see over the heads of those taller about her.  
The scale swings loose on its string from under her shirt and catches the light, shining dully. As it reaches the arc in its swing, a grubby hand reaches out from the top of an awning overhanging the nearest stall.  
Kitten jerks back, looking up, and comes face to face with a grubbier child, already shrinking back and staring at her with fearful eyes.  
Luka hisses, fur fluffing up.  
Kitten waves a hand at him to calm down and offers the kid a piece of dried fruit from the paper bag in one hand.  
She remembers being hungry on the streets, even if it was a long while ago. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone._

_The kid takes some coaxing, but eventually they’re sitting opposite each other in an open square, drinks for all three and a plate of food to share on the table in front of them.  
He hasn’t stopped eating, snatching quickly and stuffing it into his mouth before it could be taken away.  
Kitten watches with sympathy, remembering those times. She plays absentmindedly with the scale, twisting it in her hands.  
“Wha’s tha’?” The boy nods at it, not bothering to swallow before he speaks.  
“Gore magala scale.” Kitten pulls the string free of her head, running a hand back through her ginger hair to settle it.  
His eyes grow wide. Clearly, he’d heard of the beast before. “How’d’you get that?”  
Kitten spins the scale in the air in front of her and settles, remembering the story. Remembering how it all began._

~~

Kitten scrambled over the rocky outcrop, slipping as her shoe – too big for her foot – couldn’t grip when she put her weight on it.  
Esha grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her back up, to the edge of the slim path they were following through the foothills. “There, you see it?” He looked about at the rest of his gang, stroking at the red edged frill he wore as a flared headdress and neckguard.  
Below them was a green caravan, almost blended into the dull grass about it. The beast that was lashed to one end gave it away some, but it wasn’t guarding; rather, it was grazing, wandering away from the caravan with what looked like no care to the world around it.  
“Looks like a good score,” Silin murmured. “Hey Red, you see the hunter any?”  
Kitten looked up and down, squinting to see if she could see anyone.  
“Naw, not a thing,” Aver replied, appearing over the ridge beside the path, pulling his red jaggi armour back on. “It’s clear.”  
Kitten ducked back down, pulling back into her oversized, faded purple jaggi armour, pretending she hadn’t assumed he was talking to her. Of course he wasn’t.  
Esha led them down the path, puffing out his chest as he sauntered down.  
Kitten scurried after the rest of the group, slipping in her shoes.  
With the wind gusting fitfully towards them, it brought a rank smell that had most of them covering their noses and trying to breathe through their mouths.  
The beast was grazing, its harness loosened enough that it could walk some way from the caravan. It didn’t look up as the group snuck past it, and they spread out to look for entry points.  
Up behind the bench wasn’t even an opening – at least, not one they could see – and the windows in the sides were thin and slatted, barred with iron.  
Silin jumped up the steps to the door at the back of the caravan, testing the door. “Easiest from the inside, boss,” he called back to Esha, staring through a small gap.  
“Right.” Esha wheeled around, catching sight of Kitten instantly. “C’mere, girly.” He gestured her over to her side.  
Kitten smiled and hurried over, her skin flushing even under the thick layer of muck that covered her.  
He clapped a hand around her shoulders fleetingly, and then shoved her underneath the caravan. “There’s always a weak point under there, right?”  
Aver snorted, and some of the rest of the group were laughing too.  
Kitten wriggled her way between the wheels, avoiding the workings as best she could.  
“See anything?” Esha slapped a hand against the caravan’s side.  
“No – wait – maybe?” Kitten stretched up, seeing part of the underside, part of the wood that made up the floor of the caravan, in a different colour, a different grain. She could recognise them, knew that meant something.  
She hesitated, then wriggled out of her jaggi armour and climbed up to rest on the lower piece of wood that joined the two rows of wheels. This way, the square of different wood was easier to reach, and she could push it up.  
Something heavy rolled off it, and Kitten poked her head up through the floor and looked around.  
She gasped, ducking back down as she caught sight of a pair of what looked like flared yellow and red eyes glaring down at her from the wall. She all but closed the gap above her, unable to fully pull her own gaze away from it.  
They didn’t blink. They didn’t so much as move.  
Kitten, studying them, realised they were… not painted, as such, but not actually eyes. They were decoration, something’s skin pinned to the wall.  
“You in yet?” Esha slapped the wall from the outside.  
Kitten scrambled in fully and left the trapdoor open. “Yeah!”  
Horns and claws and hooks cluttered the small space, sharing with curved blades and toothed traps and two small, locked chests. In one corner, a hammock hung with two smaller box beds beneath it, all three of them covered with rough blankets and cured hides of unknowable beasts.  
Kitten took a step forward and squeaked, feeling her feet sink into a plush carpet, the hide of some bright yellow and orange beast.  
“Get on with it!”  
Kitten shook her head and hurried across to the door. The lock on the door was bigger than her two hands together, but it was simple enough to unlock from here; two presses in the right area, and a flick upwards inside it. She grabbed a tooth – or a spike, she wasn’t sure – from a nearby shelf to flick the switch inside.  
The lock fell off with a heavy thud, and the door was pushed open by Silin, who laughed as he saw the inside.  
Kitten, standing near to the door, stumbled back as it hit into her, and pressed into the wall, still clutching at the spike she’d used to open it.  
“This hunter’s got it _made_!”  
She kept out of the way as the gang flooded in and started to swipe almost everything that wasn’t nailed down. Sliding along towards the locked chests, Kitten tripped over a long piece of something – maybe it’s a bone, or actually just a wooded staff, or kindling for a fire – and fell.  
One of the gang stepped over her and picked up the stick, turning it over. “Nothing doing, Kitten. I think you’ve broken it.” He dropped it on top of her and reached up to unpin one edge of the eye-patterned skin from the wall.  
Kitten turned her head over, and saw something glinting under the nearest chest. Stretching out her hand, she swiped at it and just about brushed it with her fingers. Wriggling forward, she tried again and just about grasped it.  
Roars and shrieks echoed from outside, and one of the gang – Salv, who had been left on guard duty – slammed her hand several times against the open door.  
The beast attached to the front of the caravan had backed up – or moved, in some way that affected the caravan, and it was rocking, things shifting on their shelves or on the walls, clattering up a racket.  
“Something’s coming! There’s black mist, down from the mountains – we gotta go!”  
Everyone looked to Esha.  
“Grab what you can. Let’s go.” He jerked his head towards the door, and attempted to saunter, showing that he wasn’t afraid.  
The rest of his gang made a mad rush to the door and he was swept up in it, trying to stay abreast and in charge.  
Kitten scrambled to her feet and ran after them, tucking the reddish orb into the small sack she carried at her side.  
The door slammed shut just before her and she ran straight into it, reeled backwards, stumbled into a table, which in turn rocked a small orb from its place to roll forward and smash across her chest as she landed on the floor, puffing out a small cloud of a hazy gas.  
Kitten, coughing, breathed in the strange gas. Everything went dark.

Kitten woke surrounded by huge, slanting shadows and jagged silhouettes of monsters' heads and hides. Not knowing where she was, she let out a sharp squeak and backed hurriedly up until she hit the wall.  
Something shifted above her, scraping against the side, and she looked up to see the skull of some… of some horned beast waving from side to side.  
Right. The hunter’s caravan.  
Springing to her feet, she rushed at the door and attempted to work the lock, scrabbling desperately at its smooth surface. It had been so _easy_ before, why didn’t it – why wasn’t it–  
Shadows drifted across the slatted window, plunging the room further into darkness.  
Kitten drew back, whimpering, and her foot caught on the carpet she’d not properly replaced earlier. Crouching down by it, she stretched out her hands and patted at the floor until she found where the trapdoor had been kicked shut, and pulled it open.  
The ground was damp under her bare feet, and she wriggled back into the armour she’d left under there before scrambling out.  
Black mist surrounded the caravan, making everything indistinct darkened blurs. She pressed back up against it, glancing to each side.  
The beast that pulled it was shifting uneasily, shaking its head from side to side and letting out low, moaning calls.  
The caravan’s smell lay thick and sour in the air about her, and Kitten wrinkled her nose as she inched towards the back. It hadn’t been noticeable from the inside, but out _here_ , pressed to its side–   
A darker shadow swept across the ground, up across the caravan.  
Kitten’s breath hitched and she looked up into the mist, as if to see what had passed over.  
Ragged wings made an impression against the clouds as the beast circled back.  
Kitten shrank back against the side of the caravan, crouching down to slide back under.  
The beast let out a cavernous shriek and folded in its wings, spiralling down in a dive that stopped only when it spread its wings fully, black against the rolling clouds.  
It landed with a thump that seemed the shake the ground on its back legs and dropped forward onto its front, its wings folding in so the claws at their first fold hooked over the beasts’ shoulders, the wings draping down like a cloak across its jagged back.  
The beast still lashed to the caravan stamped a foot and bolted. The caravan jolted wildly after it, and the back wheel clipped Kitten, sending her spinning, falling forwards into the dust.  
She lifted her face from the ground and looked up, instinctively curling in on herself.  
The beast raised up its head and hissed, the sound low and guttural in its throat  
Kitten whimpered and scrambled to her feet, backing away.  
An almighty crash made her jump, and she flicked her head to the side to see the caravan toppled, the beast still attached to it and trying desperately to get away.  
The dark scaled beast before her extended its head out towards her on a neck that was jagged and ridged with sharp scales that curved out into tight points. Its eyes were dark under ridged scales, and its teeth –  
Kitten backed up, coughing as something seemed to stick in her throat, something that didn’t seem to want to move however hard she coughed.  
It took her to her knees just as the beast swiped out hooked claws at where she had been, narrowly missing her head. As it was, the claws tugged through her hair and tumbled her sideways, landing badly on her arm.  
Black sludge hit the ground in front of Kitten as she hacked it up and then stared, one trembling hand covering her mouth.  
Its shadow was over her now, its claws on either side of her – hemming her in, despite being half her height again away from her on either side.  
Kitten shuffled backwards and then froze as it growled again, _right above her_. She squeezed her eyes shut and crouched lower, flattening herself to the ground. Maybe it – maybe it would pass over her, she was small and _surely_ not enough effort for a beast this size. There was nothing to be gained for it by –  
A claw hooked into the back of her oversized armour and she was hoisted away from the ground, a white hot thread of _pain_ following it along her back.  
Kitten snapped her eyes open to see the ground whirling away as she swung in the air. She wailed, giving voice _loudly_ for the first time since this had all started, since finding the caravan – since before, since leaving Dundorma. She was going to _die_ here and there was nothing she could _do_ and –  
A thin caterwaul of a sound cut into her hearing, as she stopped to cough, choking up more black gunk.  
Kitten twisted and then was _flung_ away to the side, carelessly, as if the beast had found something better to play with. She screamed, truly this time, barely remembering to curl her head in and wrap her arms around it for protection.  
But rather than hitting rock, rather than hitting the hard ground, she slammed into something cool and hard, something that spun with her before bouncing off something and landing on the ground.  
“You’re pretty light for a kitten,” someone said, right in her ear, cool armour pressing against her head.  
Kitten opened her eyes as she was deposited on the ground.  
“All fur ‘n’ bones, seems like.” A palico in yellow armour, a huge axe over its shoulder, was crouched beside her.  
“How…” Kitten rasped out, and coughed, choking up more black gunk.  
“That’s an odd sort of hairball.”  
“Sunny!”  
The palico leapt over Kitten, swinging the axe around into its paw. “Come get a clawful of this!” It yelled, running to attack.  
Kitten uncurled and twisted over, watching through bleary eyes.  
There were two palicos; the one that had caught her, and another in red armour with black spikes and a blade to match. They darted in and out, worrying at the beast’s sides and keeping its attention divided.  
Where had they come from?  
And could she use their arrival – and eagerness to _fight_ the beast – as a chance to escape?  
Kitten pressed one hand into the ground and sobbed aloud as the weight ripped through her back, igniting the pain that had almost, _almost_ dulled into a faint throbbing sensation.  
“Stay down, kid,” someone growled behind her, close. Almost at her level. An armoured hand pressed down on her shoulder, forcing her still.  
Kitten lay back down, obedient, and curled her hands into her chest.  
“Good. We’ll deal with this.”  
Bursts of flame plumed wherever the red-armoured palico hit, scattering across the beast’s hide.  
It was roaring, attempting to swipe at the creatures, but either they were too small or too agile, because it rarely hit.  
Screaming, the beast reared up and spread its wings. Both palico hit the ground in front of it, in crouches with one forepaw each on the ground, the other still holding their weapons.  
The person walked past her, armour clicking quietly with each step. A black cloak stroked over Kitten’s face, and she blinked as loose threads trailed into her eyes.  
“Try not to move, alright?” The person glanced back, and Kitten caught sight of soft hazel eyes through the gaps in the purple helmet. “And keep quiet.” Their voice softened, lightened. With every word she – Kitten assumed, by the voice, since it was hard to tell by the armour – spoke, black mist drifted out of her mouth.  
Kitten nodded.  
“Could _really_ use a paw, here!” The palico that had caught her, the one in the yellowing armour, was sent flying as the beast opened its wings in an effort to dislodge them both.  
The other had ducked underneath, bringing its sword up to slash through the membrane.  
“Al _right_ , Sunny, don’t lose your fur!” The hunter broke into a run, unsheathing twin blades that glowed with a faint light in the darkness from underneath her cloak.  
“Trying not to, boss!” Sunny rolled to his feet and hefted his axe, bouncing on his feet as he looked for an opening.  
The beast screeched, lashing its head back as it reared up.  
Kitten saw the red armoured palico fall down on its other side, landing on its feet and darting back out of range as the beast spun, swinging out with its tail.  
The three of them fell back out of range and regrouped, and they appeared to be talking but Kitten couldn’t hear them from where she was.  
The beast stopped spinning and extending its wings, unfurling them to block out what little light it could that was getting through the black mist about it. There was blood trickling down one of them, rolling great splashes into the dust. It seemed to be eyeing the three hunters, waiting.  
For a moment, none of them moved.  
Then the beast lunged, snapping out at them and swiping with a claw.  
Sunny leapt the claw and landed on the scales of its leg, bringing his axe into play with heavy, overhand swings that thudded into the creature with a sound like chopping wood.  
The other palico had darted forward and under the swiped claws, bringing its sword up to bash flames against the creatures’ jaw, darting from side to side as it ran further under the beast.  
The woman had only shifted back far enough not to be hit in the lunge and hit out against its jaw with her blades that sparked flames where they clashed with scales.  
The beast recoiled and twisted its head to snap at Sunny, but the palico was already up against its neck, too close in for it to catch at with its slicing teeth.  
Both palico took their attacks across to the damaged wing, and the creature lumbered to curve in on itself, screeching at them as it shook and then simply tipped over onto its side in a rush of flashing scales and flailing claws, righting itself in seconds.  
When it came upright again, the hunter was right by its eyes. For a moment, they stared at each other.  
Then the hunter raised one blade and stabbed it forward, following it up with another.  
The beast reared back so that her blades caught its scaled jaw rather than its eye, and then swung its head to knock her off her feet. As the hunter gasped, black mist suffused the air around her, puffing in sharp breaths from her mouth.  
The beast reared up, one clawed foot on the hunter’s cloak as she scrabbled upright and was kept contorted, unable to fully rip free.  
As it swung in its other forepaw around to slap at her, the hunter brought both blades up to defend and ducked under them, angling the blades so that both burst into flames as soon as they contacted the beast’s scales.  
It screeched and pulled back, releasing her cloak at the same time. The blood it dripped from its paw was burning with flickering gold flames, and it favoured that foot, curling it up into its chest.  
Kitten blinked as her sight went blurry, and she coughed up more black sludge, the movement causing her to cry out as her back burned.  
The fighters – curiously quiet, but for the occasional screech or grunt – snapped their attention towards her at the noise, and Kitten flattened herself to the ground as the beast’s eyes lit upon her once more.  
Lumbering towards her, it spread its wings and flapped them experimentally.  
“Hey!” The hunter yelled, and slammed one of her blades against its nearest back leg.  
As the flames erupted, the beast growled – and kicked back at her, sending the hunter stumbling to the side.  
The red armoured palico ran back towards the hunter, who warned it off with a wave of her hand as she steadied herself upright again.  
“The tail!” she called, and the palico nodded.  
The other palico, Sunny, raced along the beast’s back and slammed his axe into its head between its eyes, somersaulting down to land between it and Kitten, baring his teeth in a snarl.  
The hunter and the red armoured palico brought their weapons up and down in an overhand motion, biting deep into the beast’s scales.  
As the blades cut into the tail, flames erupted from all three weapons and the beast pulled up short of snapping into Sunny, who stood defiant with his axe at the ready.  
Kitten snapped her eyes shut, shrieking.  
The beast’s roar cut over her thin, high wailing, and Kitten could almost feel the ground trembling about her.  
She clenched her fists, gritting her jaw as she pressed herself further into the ground, wishing it would open and shield her, wishing she could get away from this  
Sunny yowled back at it, his cry unheard above the beast, and darted forward and sideways, bringing his axe smashing up into the beast’s jaw.  
The roar cut out suddenly, and there was a sudden backlash of hot and fetid wind that bent what little grass there was backwards.  
When Kitten cracked open her eyes, the beast was airborne and – and the hunter was _hanging_ from its _foot_.  
She swung wildly with one blade, the other dripping fire and blood from where it was lodged in the beast’s food. Wherever the other hit, flames sparked against the scales.  
“Uma!” The red armoured palico yowled.  
“Hey, Snow, give me a boost.” Sunny ran to the other palico, bouncing from foot to foot. “I can get on it, I know–”  
The other palico grabbed Sunny and threw them both to the side, towards where Kitten lay, as the beast dived for the ground and landed again almost on top of where they had been with a bone-splitting, earth-shattering _thump_.  
Both palico rolled to their feet in one smooth motion and ran back to the fight.  
Kitten lifted her head, peering towards the fight, squinting in the dust the beast had raised with its landing. Where was – where was the hunter? Was she… _gone_? Had it shaken her off, landed on her?  
She chanced a glance towards the caravan, which was still over on its side. The fight wasn’t going well, but – but maybe, _maybe_ if she could get to the caravan – hide in it – the beast would forget about her. Maybe it would leave with the hunter, or the beast that was still hitched to the caravan and struggling to break free.  
Maybe she could get through this, despite everything.  
Using both hands this time, Kitten levered herself up onto her knees, flicking quick glances towards the beast at every moment.  
The two palico were baiting the beast, darting in and out of range and striking as fast as they could when they were close enough.  
The beast was twisting, trying to attack both of them but failing. _Where was the hunter?_  
Kitten was on her feet now, hunched over. Something warm and wet was trickling down the length of her back, where the line of fiery pain had dulled to a throbbing drum beat. She took slow, shuffling steps, trying to keep quiet and unnoticeable.  
A great shout and a flare of fire had her flinching, toppling back onto the ground.  
The hunter had reappeared, both blades embedded in the beast’s tail, where she and the red armoured palico had been cutting before.  
The beast screeched and writhed, both palico leaping free of its wild attacks. It spread its wings and leapt, and Kitten was blown onto her back by the backdraught, hands flying up to shield her eyes.  
The leathery _thwap-thwap_ of its wings slowly faded into the distance, and the thick fog began to break up.  
There was silence as even the beast still tied to the caravan quietened down.  
Kitten blinked and stared up into the clouded sky. Then she twisted over onto her side and wretched, bringing up more black sludge and the remnants of the meagre breakfast she’d had.  
“We should go after it. It’s wounded, it won’t be able to get far.”  
“We have its tail, there’s enough to be made from that.”  
“Not as much as the whole hide would get!”  
“Snow.”  
“Uma.”  
Their voices were getting closer to Kitten, and she lifted her head to look over at them.  
“The kit needs our help, lookit her.” Sunny darted to their sides, axe balanced over his shoulders.  
“So throw her in the caravan and look after her there! The kill–”  
“We can find it again.” the hunter cut across the palico as she knelt down at Kitten’s side.  
Kitten lay back, staring up at her as the hunter pulled off her helmet to reveal a battered face framed by a shock of crimson hair. Light green triangles marked the skin under her hazel eyes, and a flattened nose spread across the centre of her face.  
“Hi.”  
Kitten let out a dry croak.  
The hunter laid her helmet and blades to the side. “Can you two right the caravan and calm the aptonoth?”  
The palico in red armour grumbled.  
“Snow.” The hunter turned to look at him. “If she doesn’t need much, we’ll go its way. But if she does…”  
Snow slowly nodded, eventually, and followed Sunny across to the caravan.  
“So what _are_ you doing way out here? We’re a while out from Dundorma.”  
Kitten gulped, hands flying to the bag that was still somehow attached to her side, despite her best efforts not to let them.  
The hunter’s keen gaze noticed it as well. “I’m Uma. You’re hurt?” She glanced over Kitten’s shoulder.  
Kitten nodded jerkily, and couldn’t restrain the small cry as the pain burst forth from her back.  
“Alright.” Uma pulled the jaggi armour over Kitten’s head, tossing it to the side. “Let’s see.”  
The armour clattered against the ground. Beyond it, the caravan crashed back onto its wheels, to the cheers of Sunny. The beast – the _aptonoth_ , they’d said – was standing quietly with Snow at its head.  
Uma hissed as she saw Kitten’s back. “We’re heading back to Dundorma.”  
“Sorry,” Kitten whispered, dropping her head to look at the ground before her.  
“What for?”  
“Your – your hunt, I… I’ve ruined it.”  
Uma snorted, pulling off her gauntlets and dropping them onto the ground beside her. “Not the end of the world. We can come back out.”  
“Caravan’s all kinds of messed up on the inside, but it’ll run,” Snow said, running to stop before them.  
“Thanks, Snow.”  
“I still say we should follow the magala.”  
“I know. Pick up the tail, will you?” Uma shifted. “Sunny, bring over the – thanks.”  
Sunny came running with a box that he placed carefully beside Uma. He’d slipped out of his armour but kept the axe over his shoulder.  
“You’re doing well, kid,” Uma murmured, pressing Kitten forward. “We’ll just… cover this up as best we can…”  
Kitten felt her press over the length of her back, and heard the ripping of her thin shirt.  
“Sorry.”  
Kitten half shrugged, and then let out a whimper.  
“Yeah, don’t move too much.”  
Kitten nodded.  
Then she yelped as she was swung into the air, in Uma’s arms.  
Uma smiled. “It’s best if you don’t move too much just now, so…”  
Kitten nodded again, jerkily.  
Snow walked past them, the tail over one shoulder and dragging slightly on the ground behind him. “There’s stuff missing from the caravan,” he said, not looking up.  
Kitten shrank down slightly in Uma’s arms.  
“It’ll be messed up from tipping over. Chances are they’re just lost in amongst everything,” Uma replied calmly.  
Snow made a dismissive snort, narrowing his eyes at Kitten.  
Sunny hurried past, arms full with the box of medicinal supplies and Uma’s discarded helmet, blades, and gauntlets.  
The inside of the caravan _was_ a tip, with everything that hadn’t been bolted to the floor or walls thrown across the space and back. Something crunched under Uma’s feet as she made her careful way across to the hammock.  
“You just stick here, alright?” Uma laid Kitten down on the hammock. “We’ll get to Dundorma as quick as we can.  
Snow dropped the tail onto the floor with a sharp clatter.  
“Thanks, Snow. Sunny, can you stay in here with her?”  
“Sure, boss.” Sunny saluted, his axe carefully placed to the side.  
Uma stepped back, studied Kitten, then leant past her and pulled open the slat over the window facing forward. “If you start to feel worse, yell,” she said, stepping back again. “Snow ‘n’ I will be just beyond that.”  
Kitten nodded, shifting to lie in a way that didn’t irritate her back.  
“And Sunny’ll be in here with you.”  
Sunny jumped up to sit on the nearest shelf. “Sure thing, boss.”  
Snow hissed and exited the caravan, a slight flounce in his step.  
Uma laughed quietly, ruffling a hand through Kitten’s mud caked hair. “Rest up, kiddo.” She stepped towards the door, picking up her helmet, gauntlets, and weapons along the way.  
“Kitten,” she blurted out. “My name. It’s Kitten.”  
Uma glanced back at her. “Good to know.” She pulled the door shut behind her.

The cut along Kitten’s back turned septic, and she spent the journey back towards Dundorma in a haze of vivid dreams and blearily sickening lucid moments. There were quiet instances, when the caravan was still and lit dimly by a lantern in the far corner, the palicos curled into their beds underneath the hammock and Uma sitting cross legged on the floor as she worked away at a trap, or cleaning her weapons, or any of the other countless tasks she found to occupy her time.  
Kitten’s eyes flickered open and closed to the quiet, steady whispering hiss of metal against metal many times.  
Sometimes she woke and was alone, with flickering light coming in through the slatted windows and the soft murmur of voices from outside, or the swaying, jolting sensation of the caravan in motion, accompanied by the rattle of its wheels that cut out any other sound.  
Sometimes she woke and was alone and there was no light, no noise, just her alone in the monster shadowed caravan, and it all felt like a dream, like she would wake up and be back in the slums with Esha kicking her awake because they had a hunt to follow, because she had to sneak into somewhere so they could steal some more.  
If this was a dream, she never wanted it to end. Despite the pain from her still throbbing back, this was more peaceful than anything she’d known yet.

One moment of lucidity came when she was carried out into the crisp mountain air, and the bustle of a city at work broke around her.  
She was in Uma’s arms, being carried carefully down the steps of the caravan.  
Snow was holding a small purse stuffed with money, and he followed Uma into the tall building before them, marked with the sign of healing above the door.  
Inside was cool and quiet, with only muted scratchings and sharp _tac-tac_ of shoes against the marbled floor.  
Uma strode to the front desk, still holding Kitten. “I need her checked in and looked after until she’s better. Blood poisoning of some kind.” She gestured at Snow, who reached up to drop the purse on the table. “That’s for her care. Any left is to go with her, understand?” She fixed the duty nurse with a fierce glare.  
He gulped and nodded. “You won’t be – ah–”  
“Nope.” Uma deposited Kitten carefully on the gurney that had been rolled over. “Places to go, monsters to hunt.”  
Kitten grasped weakly at her rough hand.  
“Here.” Uma produced a cracked white scale from her pocket, placing it into Kitten’s hand. “Stay safe, alright?”  
Kitten curled her fingers around the scale and nodded, eyes drifting shut again.

~~

_“Hey.” The child snaps his fingers in front of Kitten’s face. “You done spacing out yet?”  
Kitten blinks and refocuses on the day around her, and the child she’s talking with. “Sorry.” She looks down, rubbing a finger over the crack in the white scale.  
The plate between them’s empty, but Kitten hadn’t eaten a bite.  
“You were sayin’ – or about to, whatever – where you got that?” The kid nods at it.  
“Uma gave it me,” Kitten says, pulling it back over her head. “She saved my life from the gore magala by taking off its tail, where she found this.” She waves the scale on its length of string, making sure it’s secure and hanging right. “And she gave it to me.”  
“You di’n’t kill the beast yourself?” The child wrinkles his nose, face falling slightly.  
Kitten shrugs. “Neither did she.”  
A shadow passes overhead, bigger than any bird that made its nest around the town, and Kitten snaps her head to look up, hands falling to where her blades would rest if she were in armour.  
A stocky body, long neck, bat-like wings. It’s too far to make out any distinct details, but… its tail seemed to be cut short, a stubby excuse that made the silhouette look oddly off kilter.  
Luka glances at Kitten and bounces up onto the table between them, straining to his full height as if that would make it clearer. Looking about, he scrambles up the pole of the awning and leans out, wrapping his tail about it. Balancing precariously, he shades his eyes and peers skyward. “It’s black,” he offers. “And ridged, looks like. Scaled.”  
“That’s never…” Kitten breathes. “Luka, go get our gear ready. I’ll finish up here.” She bounces from foot to foot, grins at the kid, and races into the crowd, hair flying loose behind her._


End file.
